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Hey Joe !
“.....there was this song called ‘Hey Joe’ that everybody and his fuckin’ brother not only recorded but claimed to have written even though it was obviously the psychedelic mutation of some hoary old folk song which was about murderin’ somebody for love just like nine-tenths of the rest of them hoary folk ballads”
- Bangs, Lester “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung : A tale of these times, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (New York : Random House, 1987)
Note : Despite Lesters’(Our Hero) confident tone, we can’t really advance our cause from this quote, since : A) He does not say who wrote Hey Joe, and B) We have not found any real connection to any recorded (or preformed) call and response type song about a guy named Joe involved in a (double) murder over an adulterous spouse previous to Billy Roberts obtaining publishing rights in January 1962.
On Thursdays Mr. Wilson and I often meet for pints of Bass at Toad Hall after work. Over the ales one day Mr.W. brought up a personal quandary, the mystery of ‘who wrote Hey Joe ?’. On various albums from the 60’s and 70's, writing credits went to : Dino Valenti, Chester (or Chet or C.) Powers, Jesse Oris Farrow, William (or Billy or W. or B.) Moses Roberts Jr. At the time, I had internet access and he didn’t. So I started doing word searches on different search engines and found a little info and more than a little disinfo.
After checking the net for answers, I found more questions :
Who recorded it first ?
Is the (!) part of the title ?
Who all have covered (recorded) the song ?
Is there a pre-Byrds, David Crosby version, possibly with Les Baxter & the Baladeers ?
What is the deal with a fast version vs. a slow version ?
Why can't we find it recorded by Valenti or Roberts ?
If it is a Hoary old folk song (as Hendrix believed) why are there no "real close" versions on record prior to the 60’s ?
I have done quite a bit of checking around for answers to these questions and will start posting ASAP some of the answers that I do have (with links when available). Jim B. will enabled this page to be as interactive as possible so we hope you can all can join in and contribute towards resolving some of the questions at hand.
Finita La Comedia, Occidentalis Technicus Neo Barbarus
There is a nice fellow who does the books in my office. We call him Uncle Charlie or Charlie Bacsi (Bacsi Hungarian for Uncle), he turned 88 last December. Charlie Balintitt started life as Baron in Transylvania but lost everything to the communists on March 3rd and 4th in 1949.They threw him in jail for a couple of years. He immigrated to the U.S. on Feb. 15th. 1957, eventually settling on Staten Island, a comfortable commute to his clerical position at The Bank of America on Broad street.
Although a tad to the right for my political liking he is a great reader (loves Huxley and Orwell) and his speech is peppered with unusual quotations. A few week ago I realized I kept hearing him murmur "Finita La Comedia" I quizzed him for the source but he didn't quite know where he had picked it up. I ran it through Dogpile which revealed that it was a line from the Chekhov play Uncle Vanya. A cursory inspection of an English translation of that text (altogether different than a well read play) indicates the words are spoken in Act IV, the last act.Chekhov appears to have made a quotation from the Italian language in the body of his Russian text. Depending on the quality of the Russian/English translation it may also turn up as "The comedy is over" which would be an over translation since it should be kept in Italian for English readers as well.Dogpile pulls-up The Italian version frequently in sites and news groups published in cyrillic indicating the term is (or has become) a Russian colloquialism. I think it is also a computer term as well since dog pile brings that context up also. I am wondering whether the Russians picked it up from Chekhov or visa versa a hundred years ago. Why in Italian ? It would seam that there must be a specific Italian literary origin such as Dante Alighiri's, Divine Comedy. (?)
Any Ideas ?
Last week Uncle Charlie slipped me a note, which read : "HOMO OCCIDENTALIS TECHNICUS NEO BARBARUS" (Western Technician, New Barbarian). He attributed it to Toynbee. I once saw
Keith Richards band "The New Barbarians" from the last row of seats in NYC‚s Madison Square Garden. That was probably back in 1977 or '78. I guess Keith dropped the part about "Western Technicians". After that Keith had another side project band called "The Old Winos".